Importance Of Intercultural Communication

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I am a special education assistant and I work with the mild population to help them get through the 8th grade. I decided to spend the day with our ELL population. ELL stands for english language learners. These children are recent newcomers to the country and to the international school community. They are adjusting to a new school, environment and culture without anyone knowing their home language. These children range in age from 11 to 14 and come from many different cultures. We have a set of brothers that are from Kenya, one from guatemala, one from Egypt, and six from different parts of Japan. The major barrier that I faced is teaching students who speak different languages. Other smaller barriers that I faced are creating relationships…show more content…
Self awareness is the first step to effective intercultural communication. Taking a step back and thinking about the way that I communicate as well as learning about how the particular student communicates is really helpful. I have to be aware on if I need to be direct or indirect and the context and frequency of my non verbal gestures. I also need to take more of a step back to be able to learn from the student. Focus less on my own opinion and goals, instead, trying to find out what the students’ ideas are and how those ideas might affect their learning or the way I present information. This can create and stronger connection to the student and to the material…show more content…
Most students go through a “silent period” when they first get to the states. This can last anywhere from a few days to several months. The student is concerning themselves with decoding verbal and non-verbal communications as was as trying to understand the socio-cultural framework of the school. I noticed this with one the the students that I interacted with more than the others. He is from Japan and completely relies on his other friend that is also from Japan to listen and speak for him. We are concerned that we are not doing enough for him when his verbal responses are so few and far between. Each individual student has a different style, rate, and pattern of language acquisition. Student A was able to obtain a working knowledge of the english language faster than student B therefore, student B then began to take a backseat and let student A take the lead. The surprising thing is that most of the learning done in the beginning pull-out ELL classes focuses on social interaction. Most of the learning takes place during general education academic lesson. This is where the student learns the vocabulary and strategies and sets their own expectations for academic
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